Oral GLP‑1 pills approved

The United States now has two approved daily obesity pills built on the glucagon-like peptide-1 drug class: Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy tablets and Eli Lilly’s Foundayo. (fda.gov) (accessdata.fda.gov) Glucagon-like peptide-1 drugs mimic a gut hormone that helps people feel fuller and eat less. Until now, the biggest sellers in the category were mostly weekly injections such as Wegovy and Zepbound, with an older oral semaglutide product, Rybelsus, approved for type 2 diabetes rather than obesity. (accessdata.fda.gov 1) (accessdata.fda.gov 2) Wegovy’s label now includes both subcutaneous injection and oral tablets for chronic weight management in adults with obesity, or adults with overweight plus at least one weight-related condition. The same label also says the tablet form is indicated to reduce major cardiovascular events in adults with established cardiovascular disease and either obesity or overweight. (accessdata.fda.gov 1) (accessdata.fda.gov 2) Lilly’s Foundayo, the brand name for orforglipron, won Food and Drug Administration approval on April 1, 2026. The agency said it approved the drug 50 days after filing, 294 days before its original Prescription Drug User Fee Act date of January 20, 2027, under the Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher pilot program. (fda.gov) Foundayo is approved with a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity for adults with obesity, or adults with overweight plus at least one weight-related comorbidity. Its label says patients start at 0.8 milligrams once daily, then step up after at least 30 days at each dose to as high as 17.2 milligrams. (fda.gov) (pi.lilly.com) The practical split between the two pills is in how they are taken. Lilly’s label says Foundayo can be taken once daily with or without food, while Novo Nordisk’s older oral semaglutide products have been known for stricter dosing instructions, and the Food and Drug Administration described Foundayo as a pill that does not need to be taken on an empty stomach. (pi.lilly.com) (fda.gov) Novo Nordisk has been positioning its pill as a direct rival to Lilly’s product. On April 2, 2026, the company said an indirect comparison to be presented at Obesity Medicine Association 2026 found the Wegovy pill delivered greater weight loss than orforglipron and lower odds of stopping treatment because of side effects. (novonordisk-us.com) (novonordisk.com) The clinical backdrop for Novo Nordisk’s pill was set by the OASIS program. In the phase 3 OASIS 1 trial published in The Lancet, adults with overweight or obesity taking oral semaglutide 50 milligrams once daily lost 15.1% of body weight on average at 68 weeks, or 17.4% in the trial’s treatment-policy estimand for people who adhered to treatment, versus 2.4% and 1.8% with placebo. (thelancet.com) (novonordisk.com) Both pills carry class-style safety warnings that patients and doctors already know from injectable glucagon-like peptide-1 drugs. The labels for Wegovy tablets and Foundayo both warn about thyroid C-cell tumor risk seen in rodents and list contraindications for people with a personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma or multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. (accessdata.fda.gov) (pi.lilly.com) What changes next is less about the biology than the format. Novo Nordisk’s 2025 annual report said the company had achieved Food and Drug Administration approval and launch of Wegovy pill in the United States, and Lilly has already put Foundayo on a branded product site as approved, setting up a market where obesity treatment is no longer defined only by injections. (annualreport.novonordisk.com) (foundayo.lilly.com)